This invention relates to equipment and methods for conveying coins from one location to another. In particular, it concerns methods and apparatus for delivering coins to a plurality of coin-wrapping machines.
Coin-wrapping machines are commonly used by banks, casinos, and other businesses which handle very large quantities of coins. A number of wrapping machines are commercially available; for example, the Standard Rasant machine manufactured by Standardwerk Eugene Reis GMBH, Germany, is described basically in Puhahn, U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,300. These wrapping machines operate extremely rapidly, and may wrap up to about one roll of coins each second. While many different varieties of machines are available, virtually all of the models have a hopper located at an upper portion of the machine into which coins are dumped, and are fed from the hopper by gravity to the stacking and wrapping mechanisms of the apparatus.
It is not uncommon for some facilities to wrap in excess of one million coins in one day. A formidable materials-handling problem is encountered, particularly in view of the fact that it may frequently be necessary to shift from the wrapping of coins of one denomination to coins of another denomination, e.g., from quarters to nickels. Accordingly, it is common for bank, casino, or the like to employ a plurality of wrapping machines to handle the large number and variety of coins to be wrapped.
To facilitate delivery of the coins to the wrapping machines, various conveyor systems to move coins from a central location to the wrapping machines have been devised. For example, a constantly recirculating system comprising a pair of canted endless conveyor belts which act to circulate coins around a closed path having discharge chutes for feeding various coin wrapping machine-hoppers is disclosed in Black et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,017. In this system, coins travel continuously on one of two generally horizontal belts until they fall into a chute leading to a wrapping machine. No provision is made in the Black et al system for returning the coins circulating on the belt to the original source in the event that a rapid change to a different coin denomination is required. Additionally, if a portion of the system (e.g., one or more wrapping machines) experiences a breakdown, the coins will continue to accumulate on the two endless belts, and will eventually overload.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coin conveyor system for moving coins from a central large hopper to a plurality of wrapping machines which is relatively simple and can operate with little or no supervision, and which is adaptable to a variety of coin supply situations. It is a further object of the invention to provide a coin conveyor system which will deliver coins as required to a plurality of wrapping machine hoppers, without overloading the hoppers, and which will return coins which have not been fed to the wrapping machine hopper to a central location. It is a further object of the invention to provide coin conveying apparatus having take-off chutes which may be operated fully open, fully closed, or at any intermediate position, to adjust the rate of coin supply to the chute according to machine requirements. These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a specific embodiment of the invention.